Open Flick and pick a window
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Hold ⌥ and tap Tab
The panel lists your open windows, the one you're in at the top and the rest in the order you last used them, so the window you were in before this one is already selected.
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Tap Tab to move down
Keep holding ⌥. Each tap moves the selection down one row, and ⇧Tab moves it back up.
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Let go of ⌥
The selected window comes to the front, even when it's on another Space or in full screen. A minimized window is restored from the Dock, and a hidden app is shown again first.
By default, every window gets its own row, from every app with a Dock icon, on every Space and display. What's in the list covers what's left out on purpose. In the free version, the list holds your 5 most recent windows.
Move through the list
While you hold ⌥, any of these keys moves the selection. The list wraps around, so moving down from the last row takes you back to the top.
| Keys | What it does |
|---|---|
| ⌥Tab | Moves down one row. Hold Tab to keep moving at your Mac's key repeat rate. |
| ⌥⇧Tab | Moves up one row. Pressed to open Flick, it starts with the last window selected. |
| ↓ ↑ | Move down and up. |
| ⌥` | Moves up. ⌥⇧` moves down. |
| ⌥1 to ⌥9 | Switches straight to that row, even before the panel appears. |
Rows 1 to 9 show their key, such as ⌥3 (more about number keys). Every other key, the window actions included, is in Flick keyboard shortcuts.
Using ⌘Tab instead?If you chose Command ⌘ + Tab in Settings › Shortcuts, hold ⌘ wherever this page says ⌥: ⌘Tab, ⇧⌘Tab, ⌘1 and so on. Which trigger to choose
Go back with a quick tap
Press ⌥Tab and let go straight away. Flick switches to your previous window without showing the panel, which appears only if you're still holding ⌥ about 70 milliseconds after the press. Tap again and you're back: quick taps flip between your two most recent windows (quick switch).
A quick ⌥⇧Tab jumps to the bottom of the list instead. With List order set to Name A-Z in Settings › General, the rows are alphabetical, so a quick tap selects the second row rather than your previous window.
Close without switching
- Press ⌥Esc while you hold ⌥. It works even before the panel appears, so a ⌥Tab you didn't mean is cancelled at once. If the actions menu is open, it closes just the menu, and from an app's window list or a browser window's tabs it goes back to the full list. It doesn't clear a search.
- Press Esc once the list stays open, as it does after you start a search with Return (when the list stays open). The first Esc clears what you typed, and in an app's window list or a browser window's tabs it goes back to the full list. Otherwise it closes Flick and leaves you where you were.
- Click outside the panel.
- Let go with nothing found. If you typed a search while holding ⌥ and nothing matches, not even an app, letting go closes Flick without switching, unless you set When you let go while searching to Keep the list open.
Use the mouse
- Click a row to switch to that window.
- Point at a row to select it. Pointing counts only once you move the pointer, so a pointer resting over the panel never changes the row you picked with the keyboard.
- Scroll a long list without changing the selection.
- Right-click or Control-click a row for the actions menu: close, minimize, hide, quit and more.
- Click outside the panel to close it.
When the panel doesn't open
- Flick isn't running. Look for its icon in the menu bar (unless you turned off Show menu bar icon), or open Flick from your Applications folder.
- You're holding ⌥ without tapping Tab. ⌥ on its own does nothing.
- Flick is set to ⌘Tab. With Command ⌘ + Tab selected in Settings › Shortcuts, ⌥Tab does nothing in Flick: use ⌘Tab.
- The switcher shortcut is off. Turn on Enable switcher shortcut in Settings › Shortcuts. While it's off, the search shortcut (⇧⌘Space unless you changed it) still opens Flick straight into search.
- Another app has ⌥Tab. A warning in Settings › Shortcuts and in the menu bar menu says so. See fix ⌥Tab not opening Flick.
The panel opens but shows no windows?If it says “Flick needs accessibility permissions to track your windows.”, Flick can't see your windows yet. Click Open Accessibility Settings and turn on Flick. How to allow Accessibility
Questions
Does Flick switch to windows on other Spaces and in full screen?
Yes. The list holds windows from every Space and display, full-screen apps included, and picking one takes you to its Space. To list only what's on the Spaces you're looking at, turn on Show only the active Space in Settings › General.
Why does Flick start on my previous window, not the current one?
With the default Recency order, the window you're in is the top row, so starting on the second row means one tap and a release takes you back, the switch you make most often. Open Flick with ⌥⇧Tab to start at the bottom of the list instead.
How is this different from ⌘Tab?
In macOS, ⌘Tab switches between apps, and ⌘` between the windows of the app you're using. Flick gives every window of every app its own row in one list. It uses ⌥Tab by default, so ⌘Tab keeps working as it always has.
Why do I only see 5 windows?
That's the free version: it switches between your 5 most recent windows and never expires. The note at the bottom of the panel says how many it shows, such as Free version · 5 of 12 windows. A license unlocks every window; see pricing.
Still stuck?Email [email protected] with your macOS version, your Mac and what you've tried, or visit the Support page.
Sources
Checked on .
- Mac keyboard shortcuts, Apple Support
